Detection and consequences

Academic misconduct includes plagiarism, collusion, cheating and failure to comply with test or examination instructions. There are consequences for any form of misconduct which all students need to be aware of.

Detection of plagiarism

As a student, you are advised that all your assessment items may be examined to see if plagiarism has occurred. Techniques include:

• checking assessment items using plagiarism detection software, such as Turnitin
• analysis of assignments, looking for specific sentences or unusual phrases taken from known sources
• comparison of individual assignments from students allocated to groups.

If plagiarism has been detected in your assignment, you may be asked to answer questions concerning the assessment and to provide evidence of your research. Ensure you keep clear examples or a record of your research effort as this will assist you to prove that no plagiarism has occurred.

What are the penalties?

The University Regulations on Academic Misconduct specify a range of penalties, which may be imposed if a student has plagiarised, colluded or cheated.

For minor misconduct, the student's name will be recorded in the Faculty Misconduct Register and they may:

• be issued with a formal warning
• have marks reduced by up to 20 percent of the marks available for that assessment item
• be required to resubmit the piece of assessment by a specified date
• be required to undertake additional, equivalent assessment by a specified date.

For major misconduct the student may be:

• required to undertake additional assessment in the course
• failed in the piece of assessment
• awarded a grade of Fail for the course
• forced to withdrawn from the course with academic penalty
• excluded from the course or the program for a specified period of time and/or
• disciplined in accordance with Statute No.3 (Student Discipline) 1999.

If you are accused of academic misconduct you may choose to have the representative of the Student Guild present.

The disciplinary process

In all cases of alleged plagiarism, collusion or cheating the University will follow the processes detailed in the Student Academic Misconduct Policy.